Review Insights · Google Play
Yi Home
Kami HK · 365,899 ratings · ★ 2.8
2.8
★★★★★
365,899 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 95 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"camera"
35 negative reviews mention this · 37% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Had yi for like 6 years. Every other year I get a good offer and use it for one camera. Never had ads B4 this last one expired and I didn't renew. Now ads at start and ads interrupt your video view.. SAFETY issue 4 me.. update May 8th 2026.…" - Lisa Ann
2
"cameras"
26 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Cameras can be very good but the app is consumed with ads that sometimes won't go away. Company passively tries to force you into buying extra cost storage to get rid of the ads." - Brian Eagan
3
"watch"
13 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "too many ads and most of the time the app messes up and you can't watch recordings anyway after you wait 2 minutes for an ad to go away when you open the app up and need to see something" - matt wienk
4
"these"
13 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The Worst! Do not purchase these cameras, the App has a lot of advertisement, the cameras are inefficient. If you access the app, you Will see a bunch of ads, you can not see any motion in a timely manner. Do not lose your money." - Leidy Ramos Rojas
5
"unusable"
12 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Functioning great when first bought that I bought extra units. Several updates then render the apps unusable due to excessive ads. They're forcing you to subscribe even though you are fine with just using an SD card." - Azhan Ezra Abdul Aziz
6
"subscription"
11 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DO NOT BUY!! Cameras don't record properly and subscription is way OVERPRICED for cloud recording that is always frozen with faulty playback. Yi is a SCAM!! Yi used to be great and now this app and cameras are a piece of $hit." - Dan Antioch,CA
7
"free"
11 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Used to be good, bought my first camera in 2021 amd bought more later because they were great. Now, with the forced subscription, it is trash. The features are definitely not worth paying a subscription, and the now free version is abismal.…" - Myrrhanda Bustos
8
"money"
10 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The Worst! Do not purchase these cameras, the App has a lot of advertisement, the cameras are inefficient. If you access the app, you Will see a bunch of ads, you can not see any motion in a timely manner. Do not lose your money." - Leidy Ramos Rojas
📋 All 95 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Had yi for like 6 years. Every other year I get a good offer and use it for one camera. Never had ads B4 this last one expired and I didn't renew. Now ads at start and ads interrupt your video view.. SAFETY issue 4 me.. update May 8th 2026. gave it a longer try. but wow. ads got worse. had emergency some1 stealing something from next to my fence. couldn't get in quick enough to c them because of the long ads. so good by u greedy asses. I will tell everyone do not use u. littleelf camera no ads
too many ads
Spammy, blocks views with adds, terrible
Too much ads and nonstop of insisting that you subscribe to the cloud storage despite that you have SD in place
too many ads and most of the time the app messes up and you can't watch recordings anyway after you wait 2 minutes for an ad to go away when you open the app up and need to see something
This app seems to be downloading new apps that it has ads for onto my phone without my permission? Ads are terrible and take forever to skip, makes the user interface super clunky. I've had this app for years and it didn't used to be so bad!
Cameras can be very good but the app is consumed with ads that sometimes won't go away. Company passively tries to force you into buying extra cost storage to get rid of the ads.
loads of ads, subscribed to a plan and they wont let me cancel after multiple times contacting them. I have had to block payments at my bank. Utterly disgraceful
A total junk. Filled with ads. Every time you want to watch your SD videos it will popup and try to sell you cloud services.
Bought my cams before all the adds, before their cloud. Now its unasable, garbage!
5 years ago this was great. Now full of advertising. Go for Tapo/dlink or any other camera. As you see below, they do offer everyone an exclusive discount, though that app is full of that discount already.
Either Their AI needs new glasses or get their eyesight checked... My cat is not human!🙄
too much ads
The Worst! Do not purchase these cameras, the App has a lot of advertisement, the cameras are inefficient. If you access the app, you Will see a bunch of ads, you can not see any motion in a timely manner. Do not lose your money.
basically forces you to buy premium which is expensive.
This app has gone from great to terrible.
ADS. You go to check a camera and have to watch 30+ seconds of ADS before even seeing anything. Spam ADS. Malware ADS Everytime you open the app. ADS. After you click out of a camera. ADS. Before or after watching a movement detected and saved on the SD card you had to buy. ADS. It's incredibly frustrating when you buy the cameras and your own SD cards and are still forced to watch ADS. This app is TERRIBLE DO NOT BUY THESE CAMERAS
to many ads
DO NOT BUY!! Cameras don't record properly and subscription is way OVERPRICED for cloud recording that is always frozen with faulty playback. Yi is a SCAM!! Yi used to be great and now this app and cameras are a piece of $hit.
the ads get longer and trickier with each day. greed will be the downfall
The app can hardly be used because of the endless ads. After having paid for the camera, I don't want to have to pay again to use an app for actually looking at the footage. Just aweful !
Garbage adware, you cannot even use the app even if you watch the ads. Never, ever again Yi hardware or services.
full of ads, go for another brand
Functioning great when first bought that I bought extra units. Several updates then render the apps unusable due to excessive ads. They're forcing you to subscribe even though you are fine with just using an SD card.
This company is a scam
worse app for this camera ever cant even watch the camera cause of the ads!!!!
just don't but these cameras. with the latest e update, every time you open the app, you are forced to watch a 30secs add just to check your cameras. horrible app and completely unusable.
how many adds can a person tolerate?????
Used to be good, bought my first camera in 2021 amd bought more later because they were great. Now, with the forced subscription, it is trash. The features are definitely not worth paying a subscription, and the now free version is abismal. You are better off selecting one of their competitors for a subscription that is actually worth the money.
60+ seconds of ads before you can use the app!? Even after you spend all your $ on hardware, you must subscribe to their cloud app, or you will see ads before you use the app, during, and at the bottom! What if there was an emergency? A perp is about to set fire to your house n steal your camera to cover it up and you want screen cap his face but an AD delays you long enough for him to get away. This is a safety product and ads have no place here. I will no longer recommend their products.
Garbage app. I paid for the camera, I should be able to use the app. What do you mean I need to pay $200 a year to get access to MY data?
Update, worst company ever! Been trying past 3 months to cancel my plan & for 3 months this company has denied me instead saying extend plan for so many months free but yet charge me monthly. Using cameras w/SD card does good but filled tons of ads & if u need c footage immediately be sol & under any circumstances DO NOT BUY THESE SHADY PLANS!!! Been 5months now still denying to cancel plan, had cancel debit card & get new 1 just keep them from charging me even though said they wouldn't charge.
Fighting for my life to see motion events saved to my SD card. I want nothing to do with the expensive cloud but they shove it in my face with every click. Got this camera for 5 bucks at a garage sale, now I know why. This camera has been taken down and destroyed, terrible company. This app must have been logging my passwords, the day after installing I was getting alerts on Facebook, Google and YouTube. Uninstalling stopped the login attempts.
ruined the app with so many ads it malfunctions, not recommended! apparently just saying sorry and not changing their behavior seems to be the special of the year! goodbye hope you have the day you deserve!
Can't use the app because of ads
Full of ads making access to cameras virtually important.
So full of adverts you can't use it anymore. No longer can I watch my own live view of the camera. I get 90 seconds "free". I get adverts on every screen. I did not buy this treatment with these cameras. I hate you.
i bought Yi Home Camera like year 2021 and now it has alot of annoying ADS. this is ridiculous! i am not gonna subscribe again with your cloud!
Went from a 5 star back in 2017. I have 12 cams. New ads are RIDICULOUS horrible interface now. will be switching all my cameras out.
Ads!
when I bought this camera you could use it with ads now you have to pay for it this camera sucks.
gets worse and worse,to many ads,they force ad free on you because they are not selling any cameras,this app sucks so bad,i hate it,they are just greedy bastards like every other company now,they can only make money by selling advertising,so they try to double dip on companys and all the app users,this app truly is the worst one out there.dont waste your time and get so mad by using this app.zero stars would be best
adds constant and make it terrible. It used to be pretty good.
awful app with service and ads!
l'applicazione è diventata inutilizzabile dall'enorme quantità di ads presenti, sembra una presa in giro.
app won't open on mine or my wife's phone anymore. also you have to pay for the ability of playback? save your money and get something else guys, I'm about to trash mine
used to be great now you have to syphon threw 1000 ads to check the security of your home, in the event of a emergency I can't access my cameras fast enough because of the non stop ads , I already paid for the cameras and the Internet service to use them ,now they want more money to go ad free if I could get a refund I would and go with another security camera because this is not worth it anymore
I've had these cameras for years, the app is horrible now. Ads pop up everywhere a user would normally touch the screen for a different feature on the app to use the camera, sneaky tactics. And they are difficult to dismiss. Will never recommend this to anyone.
to many ads! when I purchased your cameras it was ad free. offering a discount on something that was originally ad free when purchased then changing it to bombard you with ads should be illegal yi home should be sued
a security cam app with ads. not worth the money
+ 45 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
43%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
53%
Negative (1-2★)